free to play, free to suffer
by MC-GAR-IL
Summary: "I-I can't…" "Can't what?" Hanayo looks up into Maki's eyes with the most pitiful expression on her face and the redhead feels her heart break. "I don't have enough gems!"


When Maki walks into the clubroom she see's Hanayo by herself and hunched over writing vigorously in a notebook. The brunette was so consumed in whatever she was writing that Maki's entrance into the room remained unnoticed. Maki takes a moment just to observe her girlfriend. She couldn't help but smile at how cute she was, especially with that concentrated look on her face and glasses sitting on the bridge of her nose.

Knowing that Rin would be busy with classroom duties for at least another ten minutes Maki wanted to take advantage of the alone time they had. Placing her bag down next to the door Maki casually walks behind the still unaware girl and snakes her arms around her neck.

"What are you working on so diligently?" Maki breathes into the brunettes' ear.

Hanayo jolts in surprise; she drops the pen in her hand and turns toward Maki with wide eyes.

"M-Maki-chan"

They stare at each other for a moment, Maki with a soft smile and Hanayo with a lost expression.

"Maki-chan…" Suddenly Hanayo's bottom lip begins to quiver and her eyes gloss over. Maki feels panic crawl up the back of her throat and she stumbles back wondering what had made Hanayo so upset.

"Hanayo? W-Why are you- what's wrong?"

Instead of answering Hanayo stands up and launches herself at a floundering Maki who held her hands up unsure if she should touch the upset girl or not. But the moment she heard a soft whimper Maki finally stopped being useless and brought her arms around the shorter girl and ran a comforting hand up and down her back.

"Maki-chan… I can't…"

"What is it Hanayo?"

"I-I can't…"

"Can't what?"

Hanayo looks up into Maki's eyes with the most pitiful expression on her face and the redhead feels her heart break.

"I don't have enough gems!"

The clubroom became eerily silent for three beats, and then…

"Ehhhh?" Maki exclaims as her jaw drops and her arms drop to her sides.

Hanayo breaks away from the embrace and begins pace back and forth.

"I've been doing some math and I just won't be able to accumulate enough gems on my own to do everything I want."

"Huh?"

"There's an event going on that I'm skipping because I wanted to save up for the Halloween set that is supposed to come out in two months. But then there was maintenance today and they added my dream set to the game! And I almost scouted for the UR but I restrained myself. Then when I went to check the message boards the next event is for my best girl and the card is so pretty, but if I decide to tier then I won't have enough gems for the Halloween set and, but then again I still wanna scout in this box for this UR but if I do that then not only will I not have enough o tier but I'll miss the Halloween set and.. and…"

Unsure what else to do Maki just stopped Hanayo mid pace and rant and kissed her. Hanayo lets out an 'eep', but Maki presses on gently coaxing the brunette to relax. The tension in the shorter girls shoulders ebbs away as she begins to respond to the kiss. Maki rests her hands on Hanayo's hips and presses their bodies closer. Once she feels the brunette sigh into her mouth Maki ends their kiss and presses their foreheads together.

"Better?"

Hanayo nods as a blush overtakes her cheeks.

"Geeze, you really had me worried there. I thought something had happened."

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to worry you. I guess I just really caught up in my game." Hanayo nuzzles their noses together for an eskimo kiss.

"I-It's fine, just don't go getting worked up all by yourself."

Hanayo just whines and winds her arms around Maki's neck enjoying their closeness.

"There's just so much happening at once, so many pretty cards to get and events I wanna do. Being free to play is hard."

Maki hums and presses a kiss to Hanayo's forehead, "Why not just focus on saving gems? You're never guaranteed a UR anyway but when you scout after an event isn't the event card more likely to show up?"

Hanayo gasps and breaks away from their hug bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Maki-chan you're a genius!" Hanayo goes back to her notebook scribbling down more numbers and dates. Maki just rolled her eyes and moved a chair next to the completely focused girl and rested her hand over her unoccupied one.

Even though Maki had imagined spending their time together a little differently she'll admit that sitting here watching Hanayo happily planning away in her notebook wasn't too bad either.

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.

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 **MC:** I wanted to tier in this Easter Maki event, but I also want to scout for dancer Kotori, but I'm also trying to save up for Halloween Yoshiko Yohane when she comes to EN, and the next couple events are either cute cards I want or for my best girls…. So long story short, being f2p is suffering and Hanayo probably understands my struggle.


End file.
